Luke tries in vain to master the art of telling jokes. Neither does he understand games. Clyde takes him under his wing to Combat 3000 to teach him how fun fun is. Sarah Jane learns there have been mysterious storms at the time of all the disappearances connected with Combat 3000. Investigating, Maria and she also find that Mark Grantham and a humanoid, insectoidalien called Kudlak are abducting the children for an unseen "Mistress".

Luke and Clyde have survived Round One of Combat 3000 and are challenged to make it to the door to the championships, facing other accomplished players. When Luke and Clyde approach the door, they are attacked. They escape, but are locked in a room from which they disappear. Mr. Grantham points an alien gun at Sarah and Maria, but Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to escape. Maria and Sarah arrive in a different room where they are confronted by Kudlak...

They have arrived too late to save Luke and Clyde. On a screen they see them transported to space by a transmat beam.

Sarah Jane and Maria create a diversion and escape Kudlak. Back at Bannerman Road, Mr. Smith informs them Kudlak is a member of the Uvodni race, who were part of a planetary alliance fighting against the Malakh. The Malakh won the war, but the Uvodni continued fighting. Kudlak was injured on the front line and forced to leave the fighting. He was sent as part of an Imperial Fleet to recruit "warriors" from other worlds. His ship was led by a Mistress, who kept the patriotism and bloodlust in Kudlak alive. After decades of recruiting (mostly human) children via Combat 3000, Kudlak and Mr. Grantham have abducted Clyde and Luke.

Meanwhile, Luke and Clyde find themselves on a spaceship. They rescue other children from holding crates, including Lance and a girl called Jen. On Earth, Mr. Grantham breaks into Sarah Jane's home, but is overpowered by an electric shock. Back on the Uvodni ship, the children make their way to a shuttlecraft, but are recaptured. Sarah Jane and Maria blackmail Grantham into transmatting them to the Uvodni ship, where they talk to the Mistress. When Kudlak brings the children to the Mistress, everyone is reunited. They discover the Mistress's true identity as a face on a computer screen, with no real person behind it.

Kudlak is stopped by Luke before he kills anyone. Luke has discovered a ten-year-old message from the Uvodni Emperor, stating that an armistice had been reached with the Malakh. Having no programming to understand the concept of peace, the Mistress buried the message and continued to command Kudlak to recruit warriors, even though her missions no longer had any real point. With the truth revealed, Kudlak destroys the Mistress, releases the children and swears to do what he can to reunite the surviving recruits with their families. Back on Earth, Grantham has escaped, but Sarah Jane decides not to have him arrested. After chatting with her friends, Jen decides to thank Luke for saving her with a kiss. This kiss, being his first, leaves him quite confused, since he's never experienced romantic inklings before. Luke asks Clyde if he has any knowledge to share about dealing with girls, but it's the one mystery even he can't figure out.

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

Mr Smith's last data registration of General Kudlak came from a cybergon download with a Zantoxiantrade vessel that passed through the Solar system two months ago. As Sarah Jane reveals to Maria, Mr Smith sometimes likes to connect with the onboard computers of passing alien vessels.

As Mr Smith notes while accessing his database, Kudlak is one of the Uvodni Signus Brigade's most decorated warriors.

Clyde has started tutoring Luke on how to "be cool" so he can get the hang of acting and interacting like a normal human boy. Luke's unfamiliarity to the nuances of social life was addressed in TV: Revenge of the Slitheen.